A DISCOURSE 


4s DELIVERED IN THE 


METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 


AT 
RALEIGH, N. C. 


ON 


- Sunday, 20th of November, 1842. 


By Rev. CHARLES M. F. DEEMS. 


RALEIGH : 
PRINTED BY THOMAS LORING, OFFICE OF THE STANDARD. 


1842, 


Bt 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


ecm neere 


To Rev. C. M. F., Deems. 

The undersigned offer their respectful compliments to Brother Deems, and 
beg that he will accept their hearty thanks for the peculiarly interesting and 
very appropriate Sermon with which he favored the congregation at the 
Methodist Episcopal Church on yesterday morning. They request that he 
will consent to furnish a copy of this excellent discourse, for publication. — 

_ Most respectfully, B. B. SMITH, 

W. W. HOLDEN, 
A. H. TUCKER, 
T. LORING, 
R. TUCKER, 
T. H. SELBY, 
W. C. TUCKER, 

Monday morning, 21st Nov. 1842. THOS. J. LEMAY. 


To Rev. Messrs. Lemay and Tucker, and B. B. Smith, W. W. Holden, T. 
Loring, R. Tucker, T. H. Selby, W. C. Tucker, Esqr’s. 

My brethren, your note of this morning containing a request for a copy of 
the discourse, preached in your Church yesterday morning, almost assures me 
that the calm reading of the sermon when printed will not afford you the plea- 
sure which you appear to have received from its delivery. It is said that a 
clergyman who was once preaching, in the city of Washington, I believe, was 
much assisted, in delivering a very awakening sermon, by a terrific thunder 
storm. The exciting circumstances caused the discourse to make a great im- 
pression upon his audience, who solicited a copy of it for publication. The 
preacher replied, “ You shall have it,—if you will print the thunder and light- 
ning of the occasion also.” I must believe that unless you can print the very 
kind feelings with which you have ever received my efforts to do good among 
you, those who may obtain this address, (for really I think that the perform- 
ance can modestly be considered nothing more,) will scarcely believe that you 
are good judges of preaching. 

However, you are my elder brethren; and if you think that the publica- 
tion will be useful I will endeavor to write it out, praying the Head of the 
Church to bless it. - Truly and kindly, 

Your brother, | 
CH. M. F. DEEMS. 
Monday evening. 


SERMON. 
—= 418 D Ot — 


** Ts not this the Carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary ? And his brethren, 
James, and Joses, and Simon and Judas ?” 7 

‘* And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these 
things ?” Matthew XIII. 55. 56. 


The utter depravity of man, my brethren, is seen in the fact that he 
now hates those things which God loves and loves those things which 
God hates. ‘The Lord loves the light, but men “love darkness rather 
than light.” He loves the truth, but men delight in falsehood and de- 
ception. He loves purity, but men revel in filth. We are taught that 
God hates sin, and yet it is the glory and rejoicing of men to roll it be- 
neath their tongues like a sweet morsel: He hates all deceit, and men 
are continually taxing their powers to discover new methods of deceiv- 
ing themselves, their fellows, and their Maker. ‘The perfection of this 
opposition may be plainly discovered by comparing the benedictions 
pronounced in our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount with the spirit of the 

-world that “lies in iniquity.” The adorable Redeemer says, ‘ Blessed 
for happy] are the poor in spirit,” and the world says that they are 
mean and despicable and miserable. He says, “ Blessed are they that 
mourn,” and the world laughs at the thought as a most ridiculous par- 
adox, and seeks the places where the music of merriment drowns the 
sigh of sorrow. ‘lhe Master of Mind says, “ Blessed are the meek ;” 
but the world looks upon meekness with a mingled emotion of pity and 
contempt ; for it cannot see how the meek can “inherit the earth,” 
when the steps to the throne are the bodies of the murdered ; when the 
jewel of royalty loves to kiss the proud brow, and the sceptre can only 
be held by hands that never administered the cordial of consolation.— 
The Possessor of the Universe declared, “Blessed are they which do 
hunger and thirst after righteousness ;” while the world esteems him 

_ happy whose search after fame and gold is successful, however unright- 

eously prosecuted. The Sovereign of Heaven said: “ Blessed are the 
merciful ;” the response of the world is, “Happy is the Tyrant !”— 

“ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” is a teaching 

from the lips of the Father of Wisdom, while the world crowds the pol- 


4 


luted temple of its spiritual existence with most unholy images for its 
worship ; from whose altars of lust ascends a cloud that veils the throne 
of Him who sits in light unapproachable. “Blessed are the peace- 
makers,” said the Lord of Love: “Nay,” replies the spirit of the world, 
“but happy are those who, in court or camp, breaking up the friendly 
alliance of nations, establish the seat of their power on the fragments of 
the temple of peace, and retain the possessson of thrones, purchased 
with the blood of the inoffensive, by arraying man against his brother.” 
Oh! my brethren, the spirit of the world and the spirit of our Savior 
ean never agree. Wherefore it will always be true that those who are 
most thoroughly filled with the mind which was in Christ Jesus our — 
Lord will ever be the objects of the world’s neglect, contempt, and hatred. 

This entire opposition to the holy doctrines of our Religion leads the 
world to consider that wise which God looks upon as being very igno- 
rant, and that great which in His eyes is insignificant, “'The wisdom 
that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be en- 

treated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without 
hypocrisy.” 'The wisdom of the world is exercised too generally in 
satisfying the will of the filthy flesh ; it is mostly engaged in policies 
that embroil; it is exceedingly restiff, very much puffed up, very un- 
forbearing, warped by meanest prejudices, and prostituted to the accom- 
plishment of basest ends by the most unrighteous subterfuges. You 
believe it to be true, my brethren, that many a man is crowned with _ 
the bays of human applause, who, in the eyes of true Wisdom is a most 
pitiable fool. ‘The sacrifice of praise and the perfumed incense of flat- 
tery is offered at the shrines of many whom the world calls great, but 
~ whom God, in eternity, will not suffer to enjoy the honor of being ser- 
- yants to his youngest, feeblest child in the kingdom of his glory. The 
purged light of the last judgment will exhibit the shameful deficiences 
of the world’s great, and will show many, despised upon earth, as being 
true noblemen, princes, kings, ornaments of the Court of Heaven. 

I have not proposed to myself this morning to trace the entire differ- 
ence between the thoughts of God and the thoughts of man ; for that 
would be a most fruitless undertaking, There is one point particularly 
in which the opinion of society generally is vastly at variance with the 
spirit of the Gospel and the mind of our Maker, It is the estimation 
in which LABOR and LABORERS are held. : 

I am aware, my brethren, that in this day, and I will even sav in this 
city, there is a standard of respectability erected, which accords not well 


at 


2] 


with the test given usin the sacred scriptures. It is generally believed, 
if the creed has never been directly expressed in words, that labor leaves 
a stain upon the hand which unfits it for the clasp of the genteel and 
the refined ; that the most delightful state in the world is to have no- 
thing to do; and that laborer and genileman are two words that never 
formed an acquaintance, and never will chime well in the same sen- 
- tence. Now, is not this sentiment universally diffused through our 
community? Are any of us free from its influence? And is it not 
_ contrary to all that we have learned of Jesus? Certainly, my beloved 
_ brethren, we are taught a different lesson by our great Master; and that 
we may divest our With’ of this sinful and injurious prejud. ce, let us 
listen to his voice in nature and in the Holy Book. : 
God has ordained in our constitution that mental and physical health 
and happiness shall ever be joined with exercise of mind and body.— 
This is a law the slightest infringement of which will ever be attended 
‘by a proportioned punishment. Nature has made us all animal loco- 
motives, and the most painful position in which we can be placed is 
that which will cause us to rust owt. ‘The only manner in which we 
_ ean possibly be happy is to be moving, acting. 'The moral atmosphere 
in which God has placed. us is propelling ; and if we stand still in so- 
ciety we will be jostled by our driving neighbors and flung from the 
track. The illustration of the evil effect of inactivity and the benefit of 
labor, in our physical nature is very perceptible. If you take any man 
of great bodily strength, (which, of course, was acquired by labor, for 
_ that is nature’s law,) and so confine him that his limbs shall have no 
exercise, he will soon decline, and wither, and die. And if you | take a 


babe and compel it to be in the cradle forever, it never can be strong 


and active ; and although it may live to its fiftieth birth-day, it will be 
still a helpless, puny, miserable infant. Its very weakness will bea 
disease which will prey upon it like a voiceless worm. Life will be a 
burden, breathing will be pain, and all visible objects causes of irrita- 
tion. If, in additiou to this, you shall cut off from the child every 
source of mental wealth and leave it in its natural intellectual poverty, 
you will have placed him in a spiritual desert which knows no fountain 
of joy, no sparkling stream of refreshment. ‘The business of many of 
you, my brethren, gives you active habits, and nothing is so disagree- 
able to you as to be placed amid such circumstances as prevent you 
from being actively engaged. J know you to be very pleasant gentle- 
men when you are on the business street, and in your stores, and 


6 

~ counting-houses ; and I have also seen some of you kept in your own 
dwellings by indisposition, on which occasions, as I call your good 
ladies to testify, you are most distressing companions. Every thing in 
your parlors and chambers is just as it should not be, and every sound 
is irritating. It is because the activity of your nature has been 
checked, that you are so miserable. 

Now, it appears to me that every man is in his happiest estate when 
he has every power of his body and his mind exercised in some lawful 
labor; and 1 find some difficulty in deciding whether we are more 
unhappy when our abilities are overwrought than when they are 
underwrought; but incline to believe that the latter is the more pain- 
ful conc ion, for then our energies are diverted from their proper 
channel and stagnate upon our souls. ‘The spiritual fever and ague 
which then ensues becomes the fruitful producer of the moral mala- 
dies which taint the heart and make life miserable. We find, then, 
that our Creator has so made us that we can only be happy when we | 
are employed in labor. My brethren, labor is life; rest, perfect rest. 
is not sleep, but Death. 

Again: In “the Church of God, which He has purchased with 
his own blood,” we find that its holy Founder has given names imply- 
ing labor to all those orders and offices which have ever been esteemed 
the most honorable. Who, that has read them, can ever forget the 
impressive words of our Savior ?—who, as he walked up and down 
the land of Judea, preaching the Gospel and healing the sick, beheld 
with compassion the fainting multitude, and exclaimed to his disciples, 
«The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye, 
therefore, the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into 
his harvest.” Priests and Levites there were, in abundance, lording 
it over God’s heritage, but valuable laborers were exceedingly few. 
The Church calls her chosen, who stand in the honorable places at 
her altars, “the ministers of the Sanctuary.” ‘This word minister, 
which implies one who performs labors in the Church corresponding 
with those performed by persons who in private life are called by the 
more general name of servants, appears to have been a favorite with 
the Apostle Paul, for he uses it in all his longer Epistles, and in some 
of them it occurs several times. Indeed, he received the title for him- 
self from our Lord who said to him, when he was arrested on the 
highway by the light from Heaven, “I have appeared unto thee for 
this. purpose, to make thee a #inister ;” and to his martyr’s block he 


ay 
4 


bore this badge of his calling,—a name implying in the ears of modern 
refinement a most degraded position in society. ‘Those who minister 
unto you in holy things, my brethren, cannot soon forget the solemn 
injunction of the Apostle in his declining days, to a young bishop in: 
the primitive Church—“ Study to show thyself approved unto God, a 
WORKMAN that needeth not to be ashamed.” Observe, brethren, that 
we are not so specially commanded to be learned, eloquent, and accom- 
plished—but to study to be workmen. 'The world will honor the 
learned, and follow the eloquent, and caress the accomplished—but 
we are to be workmen! Is not the Church too much incline 
get this saying of our Savior ?—“Whosoever will be great among you, 
let him be your minister ; and whosoever will be chief among you, let 
him be your servant.” We have accustomed ourselves too long to 
suppose that true greatness cannot be compatible with the service of a 
laborer, for there is nothing in the nature of the two things to pre- 
vent them from being united in the same individual. My brethren, 
idleness and laziness are decidedly antagonist to every principle of our 
religion. Christianity quickens every faculty and vivifies the whole 
man. It comes upon an inactive man like the breath of life upon the 
moulded clay, and it must move. It is absolutely impossible for a man 
to continue to be a devoted christian, one “meet for the inheritance of 
the saints in light,” and at the same time to be an idler. A learned 
Doctor of Divinity, in the Presbyterian Church, once said that he 
never knew but one lazy man soundly converted to God, and that he 
immediately became a very industrious laborer and an active christian. 
Recollect, my brethren, that St. Paul classes the “effeminate” with 
those guilty of the most polluting crimes, and says that they shall not 
“inherit the kingdom of God.” And there is a much more intimate 
connection between this sin of effeminacy and the development of 
“unholy lusts, than is thought of in the higher ranks of society. 
Moreover, we see the high sanction of God’s approbation of labor in 
the fact that he has made it necessary to the happiness of the Angels 
in Heaven. We cannot, for an instant, suppose that He would place 
them in any employment which would not contribute to their bliss ; 
and yet we are told that they are “all ministering spirits sent forth to 
minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.” Not only are they 
engaged in doing the will of the Lord in heaven, but, as if to teach the 
high angels a lesson of humility, they are sent forth, they pass the 
bounds of the holy world, they are made servants,—not to other and 


S 


higher angéls,, but—to mortals; not to the royal families of the earth, 
but—to the poor, the widow, the orphan, the persecuted, the captive, 
“the offscouring of the earth,” who may be “heirs of salvation.” My 
beloved brethren, I trust that you have not suffered yourselves to think 
of heaven as a place of perfect indolence. It will be a place of rest— 
from tears, from fatigue, from disappointment, from disease, from fear— 
but no luxurious repose will woo our spiritual bodies in that better 
state ; we shall be engaged in an everlasting labor of love. An aristo- 
ra of the inactive cannot exist in heaven; every account we have 
hat Ingh place exhibits it as a scene of ceaseless activity. 
l over, the example of the adorable Son of God has stamped an 
or Ol labor which can never be destroyed. To him all distinc- 
tions in human society must ever have been as nothing, so far asa 
station in any of them could in the least affect his glory. And yet, 
that he might teach us an enduring and impressive lesson of humility, 
he “came not to be ministered unto, but to minister,” he clothed not 
himself in the robes of royalty, but “took upon him the form of a ser-: 
vant.” His hands were not softened by disuse, but were hardened by 
the tools of the carpenter’s shop; for we are led to suppose that he 
labored in the employment of his reputed father, from the parallel 
passage in St. Mark. He went down to the lowest birth-place on 
earth, his father was a mechanic, he was a mechanic, to his life’s end 
he was poor and suffering privations, his companions were the sons of 
the fishermen, and the orphan family of Lazarus and his sisters,—at 
one time he was homeless, then a wanderer in the wilderness; hunger 
and thirst were his familiars; the gentle stars alone gazed upon his 
solitary, agonized vigils ; for aes years, day and night, he labored in 
mind and body, and then when He,—the Son of the Eternal God,—had 
girded himself with a napkin and washed the feet of his humble disci- 
ples, in the most sublime apostrophe that ever clothed itself in human 
language to appear before God, he exclaimed, “I have glorified thee 
on earth, [ have finished the work which thou gavest me to do!” Oh, 
brethren beloved, may we be able to utter the same note of triumph in 
death! Then let us work while the light of life burns. 

Not only has the Great Maker given the world an example of Jabor 
in His embodied Son, but in his spiritual existence the Holy Bible pre-. 
sents him as the wide-working Creator. The canon of Sacred Writ 
opens with the account of the exercise of that power which } produced. 
the worlds and set them to their harmonious movements. He has 


‘ 


g 


built up the magnificent temple of the Universe,—He fills it with his 
awful presence. Livery atom of it shows his handy-work, and its pro- 
portions of symmetry impart ideas of grace to the angel eyes that 
behold it. His Son works, his spiritual attendants work, He works. 
He is the high and mighty Celestial Mechanic, the spiritual type of all 
true and hearty laborers, who has written out in a book, in which he 
has condensed the world’s wisdom, this saying of truth— In all labor 
there ts profit.” My brethren, the idle gentility of this world has ne 
noble companions, and even the devil in his agony finds no leis : 
keep them company, but goeth about devouring the indolents 
In addition to the sanction of God’s precept aad examp! 
of the Church and of the world shows that men from the lowest Yan] 
of society, (if labors degrade any rank,) men who from the Bi Gu, Rive 
been laborers, are those whose image and name have been graven on 
society. Look atthe Church! Who, first, after its Lord and Founder, 
did most to beat down the hosts that rose up against it? Who flung 
open the gates of our new and beautiful temple to the crowds of Gen- 
tiles that sat weeping and naked at its portals? Who yoked the steeds 
of the very elements to the chariot of Christianity and drove it through 
infuriated mobs in proud triumph to the throne of the Cesars? It 
was Paul—Gamaliel’s student, who in labor and in suffering trained 
his indomitable spirit,—it was the itinerant lay preacher, as the Jews 
considered him, who, while he made tents with his own hands, com- 
posed those Epistles which have torn the crown from all the philoso- 
phers and bought hima fame which shall live when all the Pagan 
teachers shall be forgotten. Who was it that, when darkness embraced 
the earth, in the dread stillness of which the very bride of Christ fell 
into a sleep filled with unholy dreams, when the chains of superstition 
bound her, and the poisonous vines of destructive heresies grew over 
her, rose up in the heart of Germany, and calling upon God and labor- 
ing until he gathered strength, placed the trump of truth to his mouth 
and “blew a blast which shook the Papal powers from Rome to the 
Orkneys?” It was Luther, the son of the Saxon miner, the street 
ballad singer, the little wood carrier,* the laborious scholar, the indefa- 
tigable preacher; whose opponents in argument were kings; and whose 
entry, as a persecuted man, into Worms, was far more triumphant than 
the advent of the illustrious Emperor; and whose rooms there were 


* For an Be of Luther’ s labor and suffering 5 in childhood, see D’Aubigne’ s Refor- 
mation Vol. I a 


10 


crowded with Princes; and whose influence shook every throne in 
christendom. No earthly power can now bury the name of Luther. 
Who, then, to oppose the effect which this great moral laborer was 
producing upon the world, by bodily and mental labor erected a sys- 
tem of spiritual intrigue which has interwoven its schemes with the 
policies of almost every civilized nation? 'The name of Loyola, the 
First General of the Jesuits, would have died two centuries ago, if he 
had not been a laborer.* There was one laborious servant of the 
iy 3s, M1) brethren, whose name will ever touch a thrilling chord in 
hearts; whose example of ceaseless acting can never be forgot- 
orking has planted and nourished a tree of righteousness, 
feeble in its first out-shoot but now bidding fair to spread its “green 
glories” to the light ofevery clime. ‘The son of the Rector of Epworth 
would have died an obscure priest of an English parish had he not 
wedded himself to labor. His followers are worthy of his name only 
so long as they continue to work. And so long, brethren, as Methodist 
preachers and people shall be the laborers of the modern Church, (as 
all confess them to be, and as many despise them for being), they will 
be the chosen instruments of the Lord for spreading Scripture holiness 
through all lands. Let us not blush to be found “laboring together 
with Christ.” aa 
Brethren, look into secular history, and tell me how many unlabori- 
ous, indolent, soft men have gone up to the top of the temple of fame 
and now look down from their lofty place at the homage which pos- 
terity is doing to their memory. And gathering you in from the wide 
spread fields of the past and the chronicles of other lands, I ask you to 
behold how many of those of our own age and nation whose names 
can never pass from our history were the sons of the poor, inured to 
privation and labor in their earlier days, and whose habits of industry 
grew with their years. One American example of greatness stands 
out so prominently that this subject cannot be mentioned without call- 
ing his name to your minds. You know that he left the simmering 
vats of his father’s chandlery, and the laborious exercise of the printing 
press, to lead the councils of the mighty, to sit in the palaces of the 
noble, and to stand in the presence of kings. In the palmiest days of 
his prosperity, Dr. Franklin said of himself that he was an illustration 


*An essay on ‘‘Ignatius Loyola and his associates,” which appeared in one of the 


numbers of the Edinburg Review for this year, well exhibits the results of the first ef- 
forts of the laborious Society of Jesuits. oe 


a 


of the truth of Solomon’s saying—*Seest thou a man diligent in his 
business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean 
men.” ‘The Pagan poet uttered a truth when he said that God gave 
nothing good to man without labor. From the habits of our youth at 
this time we may almost predict the general result of their lives. You 
now pass in your streets some unobtrusive, laboring young men, who 
will be your most noted Senators and most worthy Governors, when 
the delicately reared and nicely gloved young gentlemen, who ! 
most attention on the promenade, shall have been gathe 
butterfly’s grave. What good eminence can he expec 
future life, whose epitaph, should he now decease, wou 
he dressed, he died?” My brethren, the only hurtful enthusiast 
any man is to expect a result without laboring to produce it. In law- 
ful labor to secure the best ends, man finds his health, his happiness, 
his dignity, his honor, his heaven. 

And yet, my brethren, in face of all the teachings of our Maker, 
and the examples in actual life, and the law of our natures, by some 
singular principle of perversion the favored ranks of society will look 
down upon the laborer, until sometimes even he himself seems almost 
disposed to think that perhaps those who exist in the small enchanted 
circle of the fon are made of different clay from himself. However 
learned, however amiable, however correct in his deportment, however 
honorable in sentiments and upright in conduct, however useful to his 
_ fellow men, if it be his lot to call the humble laborer father, he is 
thereby unfit for the society of the genteel. But still further, the pre- 
vailing sentiment seems to be that from this class nobleness of mind 
and heart cannot proceed. “Can any good thing come out of Naza- 
reth?” Tell, in our most exclusive circles, of any noble deed per- 
formed by a poor, obscure man, and there is an expression of surprise. 
The publication of great intellectual development and immense literary 
acquirements by a man daily employed in a laborious manual exer- 
cise, excites a remark of admiration,—as though they have not always 
been the men who have furnished examples of industry surmounting 
difficulties, and poverty united with greatness, and who claim the ma- 
jority on the lists of the earth’s truly noble! It is the activity of their 
bodies which assists the elasticity of their minds; and the pursuit of 
manual labor contributes much to the healthful play of the intellectual 
faculties, ‘There is not a merchant or a mechanic here who, were he 
to “redeem the time,” could not acquire as much learning in the high 


12. 

sciences as makes many men renowned. But because of the unfortu- 
nate doctrine that manual labor and mental acquirements go not toge- 
ther they make no effort to obtain such very desirable acquisitions. 

You perceive, my brethren, how contempt for laborers has paralyzed 
the spirits of men; and you will now concur in the remark which I 
made in the bab rein: that it is a sinful and injurious prejudice. 
And yet, how long it we existed! It was so in the days of Christ,— 
in our My. When Jesus went to his own country great sur- 
xpressed because he taught with such wonderful wisdom— 
son of their carpenter! Whence could a mechanic’s son 
sdom? ‘There is another trait of our perverted nature 
en im the disposition which prompted the words of this text. It is 
that want of reverence for those with whom we have been familiar, 
however worthy they may be. ‘There is no prophet, or teacher of 
philosophy, or preacher of truth, without honor, save in his own coun- 
try and among his own kindred. How often have we seen it the case. 
that a man of intellectual endowments, who has been unable to attain 
any considerable elevation in his native place, has gone to a strange 
country or neighborhood, and without the patronage of friends, by his 
own talents has won the confidence of the people and gained powerful 
influence and desirable renown. Why is it that the stranger is so pre- 
ferred to the brother? I answer not the question, but state the fact. 
This spirit has obtained too extensively in the Church. 'The preacher 
who has been reared in our midst,—a gracious, gifted man,—may 
unfold the Scriptures eloquently well, and yet we cannot persuade 
ourselves that he is truly great. Our very suspicion which withholds 
the encouragement of our favor from him, even if he be a child of 
promise, cramps his energies and makes him to be really what we sus- 
pected he was,—but which he would not have been,—a common-place 
man. A sense of this pervading prejudice is what embarrasses young 
ministers in their first efforts to preach at home. But let a minister 
from a distance, whose name has been spoken to our ears by the lips 
of favorable reports, open his ministrations among us, and the mere 
novelty of the man, (for it can be nothing else, if he be not more holy 
or eloquent than the former,) attracts and commands our attention. 
We become so much accustomed to usefud men that they lose their 
value in our eyes. But, brethren, it appears to be so in every thing! 
We despise our common blessings, and admire that which we cannot 
obtain, and do not really need. We attach more value to gold than 


13 


we do to tron, and yet how much more valuable is the latter! Gold 
would not make our cooking utensils, gold would not make our pow- 
erful machinery, gold is only useful as it purchases materials that con- 
tribute to our comfort. A piece of diamond as large as the head of a pin 
is considered more valuable than tons of charcoal, although it cannot 
compare with the latter for utility. Our useful men are the charcoal, 
our brilliant men are only the carbon of the charcoal condensed into 
a stone which is called precious, because it is scarce, although | 
paratively useless. How liable we are to be mistaken i 
ance of men, and how difficult we find it to obey that say 
“Judge not according to the appearance, but judge 
ment!” ‘T’rue magnanimity, my brethren, pays respe 
of no caste, and seeks to recommend itself by no outward appea 
Wherefore we generally find that the truly great man is ihe in ih 
manners and attire, and seeks not to impress us with a sense of his 
greatness by any obtrusive conduct. Indeed that greatness is not 
worth having which must continually be announced. Nobleness of 
spirit, like beauty of person, discovers itself upon sight. ‘The word 
affectation implies an effort to make others believe that we are posses- 
sed of those qualities, of the lack of which we are secretly and pain- 
fully conscious. And yet so accustomed are we to judging by appear- 
ances that we too frequently take the outward badge of gentility as 
indicating an inward spirit of superiority. I should not have called 
your attention to this subject had I not thought it appropriate to you. 
This error, which existed in the day of stern primitive simplicity when 
St. James wrote, has not yet gone out of the Church. Allow me to 
repeat the language which he addressed to the Churches generally : 
“If there come into your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly 
apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye 
have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, 
Sté thou here in a good place ; and say toto the poor, Stand thou 
there, or sit here under my footstool: are ye not then partial in your- 
selves?” What would the Apostle say, could he behold the perfection 
of this partiality in modern Church etiquette? Have not we all seen 
this evil in our midst? 'The rich sinner swells up our aisles with the 
flowing folds of his cloak and a haughty air, and is shown to our 
cushioned pews, while the modest poor man who ventures to enter the 
temple with his tattered garments, is looked at askance, and generously 
permitted to sit near the door, or to find an uncomfortable seat on the 


14 


backless benches that are sometimes placed in our aisles. . Brethren, 
these things are; but they “ought not so to be,” in the followers of 
the carpenter’s son. 

Finally, my brethren, to return from these thoughts suggested by 
the verses, let us seriously ask ourselves whether we have not indulged 
the same spirit which we are all so ready to condemn in those who 
Piaposed the questions in the text. A candid reply will undoubtedly 
f ce us that poor humanity is unfortunately the same slave of pre- 
| y age and among all nations. ‘Were it so that the Mes- 
: yet appeared, and Raleigh should be chosen as the 
h, would he be more heartily received here than he was 
ind metropolis of Judea? Suppose that to-night some 
sarpenter and his affianced should enter our City, and 
because of their poverty, and the crowds which the session of the hon- 
orable Legislature and the Court are drawing from different parts of 
the State, should be compelled to take up their lodgings in some stable 
of one of the hotels, and there the Son of God should incarnate him- | 
self, as he did in the stable at Bethlehem,—would the light of to-morrow 
find worshippers at his crib-bed? Would the excellent Governors, the 
learned Judges, the honorable Senators and Representatives, forsake 
the Palace, the Capitol, your delightful mansions, to crowd into the 
presence of the obscure little stranger? My brethren, would you, 
would I, be there?—Oh, the confession which this question extorts 
from my own heart makes me feel how truly a child of earth I am !— 
And if, as this boy grew, he should make exhibitions of uncommon 
wisdom, and should go to a distant part of the country and excite all 
ears and eyes by the power of his teaching and the wonder of his 
works, and then should return to his native city ;—if here he should 
stand up in your midst and unfold his high spiritual doctrines in 
words of most simple. heart-moving eloquence, would not his sentences 
fall upon ears hardened by prejudice? Would not our minds be con- 
tinually saying “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” Has not his father 
lived for years in the suburbs of our city? “Is not his mother 
Mary”—the obscure country girl of no education, no manners, no 
polish? ‘And his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Ju- 
das,”—common men, engaged in mechanical labors? And would not 
my accomplished young lady-friends ask, ‘And his sisters, are they 
not all with us,’ and have they not been our mantua-makers and 
milliners ever since we were little children 2?—We all know that it 


15 
would be so, and that Jesus would “not do many mighty works here, 
because of our unbelief” and prejudice. 


Brethren, I have detained you; but the subject is one of no trifling 


importance, and I beseech you to examine yourselves in your closets 
to-day, touching this very prejudice. In all life remember that when- 
ever your hearts cherish or your lips express a want of Teves for 
labor, for the laborer, or for the laborer’s child, that you insuld wie 

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and despise your adorable : 
May the mantle of humility clothe our hearts ! 


a 


